A Ripple in Time
by goddess of trix
Summary: Slight AU Post DH - A tribute to Fred Weasley.  Summary inside
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Fred or George. JK Rowling does. If i did own them, Fred would not have died in the DH.

Summary: (Post DH) Be careful what you wish for. When George makes a wish to have Fred back, it impacts the whole HP timeline that the twins were involved in. An impact that may involve Fred and Sirius not dying. But what does that mean? For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. That means Death is two souls short. Either he takes Fred and Sirius some other way or he takes two other souls in their place. Although, can Death be evaded altogether?

* * *

Prologue

George shot awake after another dream about Fred. No, not _another_ dream, the _same_ dream. The nightmares had plagued him since the death of his twin. He couldn't take it. He wanted it to end. All he wanted was to have Fred back by his side.

Since the death of his twin, it felt like a part of his being, part of his essence was missing.

Since Fred's death, he had been waking up in the middle of the night shaky and in a cold sweat. Sometimes he'd wake up to someone screaming in the middle of the night. At first he thought it was the ghoul in the attic, but then he'd realize it was himself.

He was living back at the burrow now. He thought it would be better to be around family. He didn't know if it was or not though. All he knew was that he could hardly cope with what happened.

Lightning crashed through the night sky, lighting up the room he and Fred used to share together. Per his request, everything was as Fred left his side of the room. Nobody had touched a thing. There was even a box from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. It contained some joke inventions that he and Fred were going to de-bug after Bill and Fleur's wedding, before—

Lightning lit up the room again, wrenching George from his thoughts. He was thankful for that, because he didn't want to finish his last thought. Instead, he got up and walked to the window and stared out at the rain.

He walked away from the window and started to change from his pajamas to jeans, a shirt, and a jacket. He put on his boots and walked down stairs. He made his way to the front door and ran out into the rain. It seemed to be thundering quite a lot so he took this as his chance to scream.

"DAMMIT FRED! DAMMIT! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DIE! I NEED YOU HERE!" He screamed out in frustration. He broke down in tears and crumpled to the ground. "Why aren't you here? I need you now! You have no idea what kind of hell I'm in without you." He punched the ground in anger. "It shouldn't have been you. I need you here," he sobbed. "Damn it, Fred! ANSWER ME!" he shouted toward the sky.

There was a chuckle, quiet but familiar.

George looked around frantically. "Fred?" he gasped.

"Yeah, it's me Georgie," came Fred's voice again.

George kept looking around frantically. "But where are you?"

"Open your eyes. I'm right in front of you."

George looked in front of him. There before him stood a shimmering outline of Fred. "But…how?" he asked. "You're dead."

"I am dead, George. I'm not really here right now. What you see is just a creation of your imagination. But I am still here. I'm inside of you."

George just stared at him.

The creation of George's imagination took a step toward him. He took a few more steps until they were right next to each other. Fred took George's hand. "I am and always will he right here," he said, putting his hand over George's heart. "That's all you need to know."

They both looked up at the sky to see a shooting star. "Make a wish, dear brother," Fred whispered into George's ear.

"I wish that you were really standing here with me. I wish we could go back and start things over. I wish I knew that you and Sirius and Hedwig and Mad-Eye were going to die. I wish that there was a way to go back and stop it from happening."


	2. Chapter 1: The Ripple Begins

I'm back with chapter 1! Hope you like it. There's an explanation of what's going on at the bottom if you get confused about what's going on. And I suppose I should write a disclaimer. I do not own Harry Potter. Harry Potter and any other related characters (not including OC's like Ebony) belong to JKR. Believe me, if I owned Harry Potter, Fred would have lived as would Sirius.

Oh yes, and this is not twincest. Fred and George just have a close bond that is stronger than that of brothers. They're twins!

* * *

Chapter 1: The Ripple Begins

George went back into the house after sitting on the porch, silently crying to himself. He was sure nothing would come of the wish. A wish is just a wish, you know. There is nothing truly magical about it after all. The magic only happens when the thing you have wished for is in your power to grasp and George knew this. He knew there was no way to get Fred back unless he went beyond the grave, which meant dying, which meant never coming back here to the land of the living. George couldn't do that to his family. They had already lost Fred. He didn't want them to miss him too.

He climbed the stairs to his room after grabbing a towel from the bathroom. After he dried himself off he changed back into his pajamas. He needed sleep. He hadn't been getting much lately due to the nightmares.

After he changed, George reached over and grabbed a pillow from Fred's bed and then he turned out the lights and fell asleep again, almost immediately lapsing back into his nightmare.

* * *

George was tossing and turning violently in bed.

Fred, worried about his brother, got out of his bed and knelt in front of his brother's bed. "George. Georgie." All Fred could do was say his brother's name. George was tossing so violently, Fred felt if he got any closer than he was he might get smacked in the face or something equally as unpleasant.

"FRED!" he cried out. George shot straight up and looked straight at his brother. He took some deep breaths.

Fred watched his brother with wide eyes, fear in them. "George, what happened?"

"Horrible nightmare." George wouldn't meet Fred's eyes.

"Yes, but why did you scream my name. What happened in your nightmare?"

George looked Fred in the eye and opened his mouth. "I—" He just couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to say that his twin had died in his dream. He felt that if he said it out loud, that would somehow make it come true. George looked down at his feet. "I don't want to talk about it."

Fred was confused. George never kept secrets from him. He studied his brother for a minute and then smiled understandingly. "Okay."

George looked up at him, slightly confused. "You're okay with that?" he asked.

"Of course. I'm sure you'll tell me when you're ready." Fred stood up and walked back to his bed. He climbed in and lay down, facing his brother.

George lay back down, facing the wall next to him. He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, but whenever he did, that scene, the screams, Fred's lifeless face, that unspeakable feeling he felt when he found his dead twin, they all kept resurfacing and kept him from sleep. So, he did the only thing he could.

With tears streaming down his face, he crawled out of bed and walked over to Fred. He stood there for a few minutes and just watched him sleep. George didn't know what he would do if his dream ever came true. He couldn't even begin to imagine what his life would be like without Fred.

George started running his fingers through Fred's hair and then he started tracing the contours of his face. Fred's skin was smooth and his hair was so silky.

Fred opened is eyes. "George? Is everything alright?" he asked.

George retracted his hand. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you. I couldn't sleep…" He trailed off and looked away.

Fred smiled, chuckling softly. "So you thought you'd come over here and bother me."

"I just want a hug and then I'll leave you alone to sleep."

"What about you?" asked Fred. "Are you gonna sleep soon?"

"I don't know. But it doesn't really matter anyway. Tomorrow we start our second year at Hogwarts. I can sleep in the car on the way to the train station and I can sleep on the train." George turned his eyes to the ceiling, thinking.

Fred studied his twin. Something must really be bothering him. Usually once he's asleep almost nothing can wake him until morning. Fred sat up and stretched out his arms. When George didn't see, Fred cleared his throat.

George looked back at his twin. A small smile settled on his lips. George leaned in and hugged Fred, holding him for longer than he usually would. He took in what he was feeling at that moment. He wished he could freeze time, be one with his twin forever. He tried to memorize Fred's scent, the feeling of holding his twin in his arms. George was so afraid that this would be the last night they would be together. His was afraid Fred would be stolen away into the night, never to be seen again.

He felt the tears pricking at his eyes, getting ready to make their escape. He couldn't hold them. He couldn't hold back. He started sobbing. "Fred," he sobbed.

Fred held his twin tighter. "Shhhh." He rubbed George's back, trying to comfort him. "I'm right here, Georgie. I will always be right here. I won't leave you. I promise. Whatever is bothering you, I promise, we're in it together."

George's sobs lessened as the minutes went by until Fred was sure his brother had fallen asleep in his arms. "George," he whispered into his brother's ear. "George, wake up." Fred wasn't sure what to do. This was getting awkward. "Georgie."

"Uh, wha?"

"You need sleep. Come on. Crawl in with me. You shouldn't be alone tonight. I have no idea what your nightmare was about but it obviously affected you greatly."

George didn't turn down the offer. They hadn't slept in the same bed since before they started their first year of Hogwarts.

* * *

George woke up before Fred the next morning. He sat up and stared at his twin, remembering his nightmare from the night before. He had no idea where it had come from at all. The nightmare didn't bother him as much of the idea of losing his twin did.

Fred opened his eyes to the sight of his brother admiring him. "Good morning." He smiled. "How are you feeling this morning, George?"

"I didn't have anymore nightmares last night, if that's what you're asking. And thank you for letting me sleep with you. I think you're the reason I didn't have any nightmares." He leaned down and hugged his brother. He also let out a large yawn. "I'm still tired though."

"Let's get up, get dressed, eat, get our trunks in the car, and then you can sleep all you like today until we get to Hogwarts."

And George did just that. When it was time to leave George grabbed a blanket to use in the car. He laid his head on Fred's lap and fell asleep.

* * *

"Georgie, wake up." Fred lightly shook his brother. "We're here. Wake up."

George sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes. "Uh-huh. Kay." He yawned deeply and got out of the car, blanket in hand. He grabbed his trunk and wheeled it into the train station and through the pillar that was the entrance to Platform 9&¾.

"Bye Fred! Bye George!" called Mrs. Weasley after the boys got their trunks stored.

"I wonder where Lee is," said Fred as he started looking around the train.

George yawned again. "I don't know, but I am going to look for an empty compartment so I can continue sleeping. I'll find you when I wake up."

The boys went their separate ways, Fred looking for Lee and George looking for a place to sleep. After some looking George finally found an empty compartment. He walked in and laid down on the bench after covering himself up.

He was almost asleep when the compartment door opened. George heard a string instrument and a female voice singing. "Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you and everything you do. Yeah, they were all yellow."

George opened his eyes and looked toward the door. In the doorway stood a girl about his age. She had black hair that was up in a pony tail and adorned upon her head was a pink and black headband that had a pink and black bow off the side on it. She had beautiful ice blue eyes. She had on black combat boots that had bows on them too. On her black shirt was a green dog-creature that had a pink background behind it. Higher up it had the words "Cupcake Attack!" on it in green and yellow letters. She also had on tight jeans that didn't seem overly tight. On top of the jeans she wore a blue mini-skirt that matched the icing around the dog-creatures mouth. George also noticed that she had on cross earrings and a white circular necklace with a wolf on the front of it. The way he saw it, it looked like the wolf was howling to the moon. And the instrument she was playing was a ukulele.

"I came along. I wrote a song for you and all the things you do." The girl stopped strumming abruptly, probably because she just realized she had walked in on somebody. "Oh sorry. I thought this compartment was empty. I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

George smiled and rolled onto his stomach. "That's okay. I was getting ready to take a nap but if you want to sit in here, go ahead. I don't care."

"Thank you for the offer, but I wanted to play my ukulele and I think that would just disturb you if you were trying to sleep."

"It really wouldn't. I listen to music to help me sleep sometimes. And your voice is really pretty, if you don't mind me saying."

The girl smiled and walked into the compartment. "Thank you. What should I call you?" she asked, sitting down across from George.

"My name is George Weasley."

"Oh, you're a Weasley," she said smiling.

"Why? Is this a bad thing?" asked George, curiously looking at the new girl.

The girl quickly turned her head and stared out the window. She smiled to herself and shook her head. She looked at George, a mischievous look in her eye. "Nope, not at all! I'm Ebony, by the way."

"That's a really pretty name. A pretty name for a pretty girl." George rolled onto his side. "And now, if you don't mind, I'm going to have myself a nap." He winked at Ebony and then closed his eyes. "And don't mind me. I won't bother me if you play you ukulele."

Ebony nodded and picked up her ukulele, which she had set next to her when she sat down. She started strumming chorus of "Yellow" because she had lost her place when she realized she wasn't alone. She didn't care though because the chorus bits were her favorite. "Your skin, yeah, your skin and bones turn into something beautiful. And you know, you know I love you so. You know I love you so. I swam across; I jumped across for you. Oh, what a thing to do 'cause you were all 'Yellow.' I drew a line, I drew a line for you. Oh what a thing to do. And it was all 'Yellow.' Your skin, yeah, your skin and bones turn into something beautiful. And you know, for you I'd bleed myself dry. For you I'd bleed myself dry."

George slipped into a nice sleep, this time without any nightmares. Instead he dreamed of stars and space and the ebony blackness and the serene and calming feeling of it all.

* * *

George woke up in his the next morning oddly comforted and a little confused. There had been a song playing in his sleep. A song he had never heard before. And a girl he didn't remember seeing at all in his life. This confused him greatly but he was slightly less morbid about this because that meant he did not have nightmares about Fred for the rest of the night.

* * *

/\/\/\/\/123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123 123/\/\/\/\/

Yay! New chapter. I hope you liked it. I hope you understand what I am doing or trying to do. If not, I would be more than happy to explain it to you. The "ripple" that George's wish caused is only in the dream world. George has no conscious knowledge of what he has done. And the dream that he had was somehow psychically linked to young George. And as can see in the last bit, the "ripple" works both ways.

Now to explain the girl and how young George meets her but the original George does not know her at all: The first time around, I bet original George wasn't plagued with that nightmare, therefore he got an adequate amount of sleep the night before. Thus meaning he didn't need a nap so Ebony never walked in on him trying to sleep so they never met.

Also, when I was writing the plot summary in the prologue I really didn't have a plot but I've been thinking about it and I'm going to go with it. And keep in mind that Death is not just going to take two random souls to make up for not taking the souls Sirius and Fred. Death is going to want to take somebody that's close to them. But he's not allowed to take anybody overly important to the plot like say Harry or Ron or Hermione. Because he is not allowed to upset the balance of good and evil.


End file.
